The Weeknd Reportedly Dropped ‘After Hours’ Despite Being Told to Hold it Because of the Coronavirus

The Weeknd released his new album After Hours on March 20, just days into a global pandemic for the coronavirus. The album has ran up the charts, but a new report from TMZ states his label wanted him to delay the release.

After Hours spawned a couple of high performing singles in the road to the album release but executives suggested that he stalled on the drop due to the lack of being able to promote the album. With coronavirus running rampant, Abel was not able to do any high-profile TV appearances.

The album dropped anyway and became the biggest debut of 2020. The album did 1 billion streams int he first week, 100 million streams on the first day and the album took over the top 12 spots on the Apple Music Top 100.

If you need more to prove the power fo the XO star, the first week total for the album was well over 400,000 album-equivalent units. Of that total number, 200,000 units were from traditional album sales.

Long story short, The Weeknd knew the coronavirus couldn’t stop his train.